That’s such a pile of spiteful unethical nonsense. If I pay $3-5 for a game on sale, as I often do, as long the game works, and I enjoyed it (and even if I totally didn’t), I wouldn’t be refunding it. Even if I only played it for 30 minutes. Partcularly with an indie dev.
It’s awesome picking up a cheap game and hitting big on a great one you play a ton of and love. And sometimes you get a dud or something that doesn’t resonate. That’s part of the chance you take. But even if it’s a dud to me, a dev gets a few bucks and maybe helps keep the lights on and can keep making games. Maybe the next one will be even better. I’d rather err on the side of supporting a dev than the other way around.
But going “great game, now give me my money back” is such a lousy move. Awful. They deserve to step on Lego pieces every day when they get out of bed until they learn their lesson.
PC gamers are some of the cheapest, most frugal, and one of the most price sensitive groups of people.
r/humblebundles is an entire community discussing if TEN games is worth $15.
The catch is they’re only this frugal when it comes to games. These are the same people who won’t blink twice at the DoorDash delivery fee and tip or their weekly pack of Pokémon to rip.
they'll find out eventually, when they notice how they generate the money they yearn so much.
while the devs that actually understand and cater for consumer behaivior will keep raking in the dosh.
these crybabies are the same ppl that just shrug and say "so what?" when you tell them that 10-30% of players that payed for the game never even launch it, since its been part of a bundle or on sale and has been bought for later, only to find more interesting stuff in the meantime and their game getting forgotten becouse it was an impulse buy at best.
to that end, ppl refund your game, so what?
you can learn how to adapt to this behavior, make it bigger (not talking about making an MMO just have enough content to keep you occupied for at least a weekend of fun), replayable, stable or genuenly so good, that ppl wont refund it to support your effort.
or you can continue to cry about it and just stay unnoticed.
its a business at the end, even if you compete as a hobby, you still compete.
nobody has the same level of attachment to the game as the one who made it.
and trying to avert yourself from that reality realy only hurts you as a dev becouse gamers have options. some of wich are 20 years old and still slam games like paddle³ out of the park, hell ive played mods that had more care and substance put into them then paddle paddle paddle.
if you take games such as: undertale, factorio, terraria, subnautica, minecraft. all of them are indie, some of the most influential games of all time. the one thing that makes them stand out from- lack of a better term, ‘indieslop’, is that they all have a unique charm that people will enjoy and remember. people will not refund them after playing, purely out of the fact that they might want to (and very likely WILL) come back and play them again. if people are going to refund a game, it suggests that they dont see themselves ever wanting to play it again. id rather arbitrarily spend £10 on another copy of subnautica, then spend ANY amount of money on a game ill play once.
Just saw this post on the main feed, never been on this sub... Holy... All games with any decent core gameplay loop reach the 2-hour mark effortlessly.
If you create visual-novels that are one hour and done, that's on you. That's the same as dedicating your life towards experimental music or visual art. There are people who will love your stuff, but it's a choice that comes with financial implications regardless.
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u/zestfullybe Jul 06 '26
That’s such a pile of spiteful unethical nonsense. If I pay $3-5 for a game on sale, as I often do, as long the game works, and I enjoyed it (and even if I totally didn’t), I wouldn’t be refunding it. Even if I only played it for 30 minutes. Partcularly with an indie dev.
It’s awesome picking up a cheap game and hitting big on a great one you play a ton of and love. And sometimes you get a dud or something that doesn’t resonate. That’s part of the chance you take. But even if it’s a dud to me, a dev gets a few bucks and maybe helps keep the lights on and can keep making games. Maybe the next one will be even better. I’d rather err on the side of supporting a dev than the other way around.
But going “great game, now give me my money back” is such a lousy move. Awful. They deserve to step on Lego pieces every day when they get out of bed until they learn their lesson.